Do you know this?

There are approximately 18000 parents registered with CARA, while the number of children in the Government's adoption pool is less 1800.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Reason I went to Hamburg

In 1975, when I joined the boarding school for the disadvantaged boys, funded by KNH in Germany, a gentleman (Mr. Siegfried Mielkie) chose to support me (through KNH) then and continued till I finish my professional education in Physiotherapy (15 years totally).

Mr. Siegfried had never seen me (except for seeing me in the pictures) and I talked to him once over the phone when I was living in the US. Since I was going to Germany, I wanted to meet Mr. Siegfried and tell him personally what and how much he meant to me. He lives in city called Hamburg with his wife.

On the 28th, my friend and I boarded the ICE high speed train at Duisburg for Hamburg at about 8:00 AM and reached Hamburg-Harburg rail station around 11:00. When I got off the train, I noticed an elderly caucasian man was looking at me and I knew from his earlier pictures that it was him. I waved at him and with a big grin came and he came close gave me a hug.



He took us to his children’s homes and we had lunch together. As usual I did most of the talking and he just listened. He asked me lots of questions about what I am doing now and when he heard about the work of the HOPE House he looked very happy. Altogether we were there for about 3 hours and then it was time to get back to the rail station to return. Mr. Siegfried and his son drove us to the station.

I didn’t know when I’ll see him again but I was so satisfied that I had gotten to meet a man who paid for my entire education unconditionally. When I found out through his children that they came to know about what their dad did to me, only that day, I was really moved and appreciated his humility.

If you ever want to help someone, help a child to get educated.

1 comment:

Jeff and Leslie said...

What a nice story! It's great that you got to meet him. Good luck on the rest of your trip.